Congratulations to the Arizona DBacks. They thoroughly outplayed the Dodgers team in all three games, and earned their spot in the NLCS. The Dodgers were out hit, out pitched, out run, and out defensed in all three games. It really was not much of a series for the Dodgers, and was not representative of a team that won 100 games.
Go ahead and blame the pitching. I am not going to say that Lance Lynn had a good or even respectable outing. But once again, it was the offense that flat out failed.
Mookie and Freddie were a combined 1-21 with 3 BB. Mookie did not get a hit in the series, and walked once. Freddie got 1 single and drew 2 walks. Corbin Carroll was 3-9 with 4 walks. For the last three series (13 games) with LAD, Mookie is hitting .125/.246/.167/.412, 57 PA, 48 AB, 6 hits, 2 doubles, 8 BB, 1 SF, 2 RBI. The Dodgers are 3-10 in those games. I think if one is going to place blame, Mookie gets a longer look than does Clayton Kershaw.
For the series, the Dodgers were 17-96, 9 BB, 24 total bases including 2 doubles, 1 triple, and 1 HR. The Dodgers had 4 XBH in 3 games, the DBacks had 4 HRs in one inning. For the series, LAD was .177/.248/.250/.498. The Dodgers averaged 5.6 runs per game, and was only able to plate 6 runs in three games. Okay, the starting pitching was abysmal, a point that is not arguable. But LAD was not going to win a divisional series with that offense.
- Will Smith – 5 hits, 1 double, 1 triple, 2 RBI
- Kiké Hernández – 3 hits, 2 RBI
- JDM – 2 hits, 1 HR, 1 RBI
- Miggy Rojas – 2 hits
- Max Muncy – 2 hits
- CT3 – 1 hit, 1 RBI
- David Peralta – 1 hit, double
- Freddie Freeman – 1 hit
That is the entirety of the LAD offense.
After Clayton Kershaw was pulled in the 1st in Game 1, and Bobby Miller was pulled in the 2nd in Game 2, I sheepishly stated that the trend was for Lance Lynn to get pulled in the 3rd inning in Game 3. Well, that is exactly what happened. A post season record of 4 HRs in one inning, and all off of Lance Lynn. That seems appropriate since it appears that this year Lynn has surrendered more HRs per 9 innings than any other SP in MLB history.
Bert Blyleven allowed the most HRs in a season with 50, but that was in 271.2 IP. He allowed 46 in the next season in 267 IP. That is 1.66/9 innings and 1.55/9 innings respectively. Lynn has surrendered 44 HRs (not counting the 3rd inning last night) in 183.2 IP. That calculates to a 2.16/9 innings. Lynn is the quintessential HR allowed king in MLB. I feel comfortable in predicting the Dodgers will not exercise the $18MM club option for Lynn for 2024.
There will be those who will regale us all with “I told you so”. And good for them. I hope they feel better while criticizing the Dodgers. Me? I enjoyed the season as a whole. I did not like the ending. But this was supposed to be a transitional year. I can still recall Stan Kasten’s words in November last year:
“Earlier in the last decade, we had a wave of young guys who were going to be real contributors. We think we are now on the precipice of the next wave of young guys. We need to make room to allow that to happen. …”
They made room, and the team will be better for it in the future. For now we will have to live with the fact that the team “choked” at the wrong time for the second consecutive year. Questions will be raised and answers will be required.
I have not felt upset about a loss since the 2017 WS that we now know was stolen, but since AF took over, only one organization has won two WS, and one of those was stolen from the Dodgers. If not for the cheatin’ Asterisks, the Dodgers would have 2 WS championships.
I have no regrets for my support for AF, although I too have questions, and while I am not a journalist with contacts in the front office, I do hope some will get answers. I have dealt with accountability a lot in my professional career. Very few times did accountability equate to firing.
I am going to take a couple of days off. My wife is having a medical procedure that will have my full attention on Thursday. When I do return, while my focus will be on the USC – ND game, I will begin to formulate my thoughts on what went wrong.
“If not for the cheatin’ Asterisks, the Dodgers would have 2 WS championships.”
Would we really? Because recent history (2013-2023) suggest that we’d still choke when it mattered most. The more I think about it, if Houston didn’t cheat, what makes us so sure we’d win? Maybe they’d still win.
The stars for the Dodgers consistently don’t show up. It is what it is. Zero mamba mentality.
Not that I want this to happen, but i am more convinced than ever that Dave Roberts will no longer be the manager. Clearly his message regarding urgency hasn’t resonated with this team.
We’re clearly talented, as shown by 2 world series trips, and then 4 straight 100 win seasons sandwiched around a Covid year team on pace for 100 wins. Yet October has been first round and out, World Title, 2nd round and out, first round and out, and first round and out.
The last 2 years were the most pathetic of all the losses, and this year somehow even topped last year.
When it matters most, we don’t come to play, or we press too hard and panic. Perhaps another voice can get us ready for October.
I will say it again, I totally dislike the way the playoffs are set up now. Make the wildcard a best of five so there is no break for the wildcard teams. Make the next two rounds best of seven. Shorten the season a little and re-seed after the wild card round. The best team should be playing the worst team left standing. Also, Dodger needs this winter, pitching, more pitching and some hitters who do not strike out so damn much.
Oregon/Washington game is better.
The Dodgers lost to a 6 seed. They lost to a second place team that finished 16 games behind them. This is the second straight year that has happened.
It’s probably coincidental but this has a feel of Kasten’s Braves team. 1 Championship in 14 tries. Maybe we should fire him.
While Harper and others are hitting bombs all over the place the Dodgers thunder was absent. Why? They looked dazed and confused. They looked disengaged. They looked tired.
I don’t know what the answer is. Fire the manager with the best win percentage the organization has ever seen? He also has the best win percentage MLB has seen in a hundred years. That makes no sense to me, though I’m sure others will call for it. Several will be gone of course. The discussions on who will replace them will begin soon.
Won the Division, again, but, October. So disappointing.
I think this performance was a new playoff low for this team. I was going to watch every pitch in last night’s game regardless of the score. With the fun and entertaining regular season I thought maybe they could wake up and rally for the victory. It was not to be. I’ve been watching all these awesome regular season results since AF took over in 2015;. And, for the most part, have no idea what this team needs to do different to win a World Series. Apparently, the Dodgers don’t either.
They have the talent offensively. And until this year always had a top ranked pitching staff. Bobby’s suggestion that Dave Roberts needs to be replaced would be hard to justify being he is the all time winningest manger. But, his message is not creating the urgency or focus needed come playoff time. I watched these games and there is no energy in the dugout. I know it’s not the case, but they looked defeated and going through the motions. One routine ground ball after the other.
It’s a mystery to me. Like I said above, I have nothing on what could do to change this continual failure in the postseason. They had four players with 100+ RBIs and 30+ HRs producing a collective BA of .119 with 1 HR and 1 RBI in this series. Sure, it was only a small sample size of three games, but come on. It was a “Bueller?, Bueller?” situation I don’t think there has been an LA Dodger postseason beatdown like this since the Baltimore Orioles sweep the Dodgers in 1966 World Series. In the four games the Dodgers boasted an all-time record with two runs, seventeen hits and a .142 BA and a pathetic 33 consecutive scoreless innings. Yikes.
I think there may be major player and staff changes coming in the offseason. These playoff failures are costing the ownership millions in annual cash flow and 100’s of millions in equity appreciation. And, as we all know, it’s all about the Benjamins!
Carry on…to next season.
So. I was going to write about how maybe the Dodgers are too HR (or three outcome) dependent and they could use more contact hitters.
but then I realized they lost this series Tia HR driven team (Game 3 personified) and I looked at the Philly series and its dingers. Houston. Texas. And this series also showed how hard it is to string together non HRs consistently.
maybe just find hitters who don’t slump at in opportune times?
What’s not to like about the season? A hundred Happy Endings compared to only sixty-five Duds. At my age, I’ll take that every year.
Arizona was a streaky team all year. The Dodgers were more steady much like the tortoise and that led to winning more games during the regular season. But Mookie is a streaky player and although his hot streaks were longer than usual, he still had cold streaks that were brutal. The winner of a playoff series goes to the hare.
The Dodgers entered the playoffs against a streaky team that was hot and with a Mookie that was cold. Freddie might have been affected by a hbp. Muncy was totally over swinging until late in the 3rd game.
Miller couldn’t throw strikes but otherwise looked healthy. Kershaw looked unhealthy. Lynn looked like Lynn which was no surprise. If Miller had not been whatever he was in game 2, I think Roberts/Friedman would have been brave enough to start Pepiot in game 3.
I don’t think Roberts had anything to do with the disappointing pitching and hitting. I think he again failed to make the right call with Kershaw. Kershaw obviously wasn’t strong and was getting hit hard. Roberts kept nhim in too long but again he wasn’t responsible for the attitude of any player. It’s the playoffs.
Muncy had trouble with almost everything hit to him. He tried to hit the ball out of Dodger Stadium. Is that what a veteran leader does? Can they use their option on him and then trade him?
I would have liked to have seen more of Sheehan, Pepiot, and Grove and less of Lynn.
Extend Smith already.
Hope Lux will be a difference maker next year.
Congratulations to AZ.
May Oregon State win the Pac 12 Championship.
I don’t want to come over here and say I told you so, I’m a Dodger fan too, and just as pissed off as all of you, but I’m seeing a lot of the same quotes and recommendations and platitudes from last year, and the year before.
“Need to find hitters who don’t strike out too much”
“The playoff format sucks”
“We should have won in 2017”
It’s like rinse, repeat, year after year. Win 100 games, win division, forfeit in playoffs. And believe me, you watched it with your own eyes, they clearly forfieted as there was no effort in that series at all. And management never gets fired and shrugs their shoulders “isn’t it just baseball”? is what Friedman told the media here. Wonder if he’ll be condescending and useless again this time.
It was clearly obvious to me, and some of you back in April and May that the Dodgers were not a championship caliber team. They did not have a championship caliber pitching staff/roster. That is why I did not drink the swill this year and will never drink the swill again under Friedman/Roberts. You think the Dodgers are a championship caliber team just because they won 100 games? Prove it. Win in October.
Moving forward, I would begin making changes right now if I were Walter and Kasten. Other teams make changes when their rosters and managements fail year after year.
First thing, immediate firing of Andrew Friedman and Brandon Gomes. Pink slips handed, goodbye, get out and dont come back. It’s Friedman’s moronic Decree that all starting pitchers go 5 and 80 and immediately hooked. We need management that values great starting pitching and that is not Friedman clearly.
I would keep Roberts, but on a short leash. One-year contracts and maybe a little more fire, passion would help here.
As for the coaching staff, I would fire everyone,. Ebel, Geren, Prior, SVS all gone. And yes I do know that the hitting was just as much a problem as the poor starting pitching. You know who I would hire as hitting coach? Normar Garciappara. That guy knows how to hit, and maybe some old school brand of baseball would help those pathetic hitters in October. Pitching coach? I’m extending an offer to Orel Hershiser. You see where I am going with this?
As for who replaces Friedman? Like I said, I don’t know, but the first guy that comes to mind is Theo Epstein. Someone who has built multiple championships accross different orginzations, and builds rosters around very strong pitching.If anyone has someone they would like to see take the reigns, let us know.
I would then immediately call Blake Snell, and start negotiating.
I Know some of you will not agree with me and that is ok. I did not like this pathetic brand of loser ball. I did not enjoy the season. I prefer the Dodgers not to get embarassed on the biggest stage.
Dang, how many pathetic playoff losses is this now? 8, 8 and counting. recommendation for Roberts though, when the team wins 100 next year and loses again in the playoffs, Bat Mookie Freddie 8th and 9th. Those guys are the saddest and sorriest “superstars” I have ever seen.
One other note, It was clearly obvious that the Dbacks, much like the Padres last year, out prepared the Dodgers. They watched video, read scouting reports, went over scenarios probably. Did the Dodgers do that? Or did they just put on the uniform, show up and suck? You guys tell me what you think.
I find myself saying this every year at this time, so why should this year be any exception.
We need to bring in a star position player with ATTITUDE.
I love Mookie and Freddie and their disastrous performance this past week isn’t going to change that. Their performance and leadership in the clubhouse helped us win 100 games this year when most people thought we’d be lucky to get to 90.
BUT, they are both too low key and polite to bring the team out of the doldrums when our hitters start hibernating in the playoffs. Look at the effect that Harper has on the Phillies. I realize there aren’t many of those guys out there, but AF needs to make that a priority this winter. Find a guy through trade or free agency and do what you have to in order to add him.
I want someone in that clubhouse that the other players wouldn’t want to disappoint. With the current group, if someone goes 0-4 with 4 strikeouts, they know that Mookie or Freddie will pat them on the back and tell them it’s OK.
Simply put, we need the second coming of Kirk Gibson.
And this for my friend Bums, I’ve seen enough of Max at 3rd base. It would appear that our possibilities for DH next year are Ohtani, JDM or Max. If it’s someone other than Max, he needs to be traded. By all means, pick up his option, because he still has trade value and that contract is still a valuable asset.
When you’re handed one of the best teams in baseball year in and year out, you should be expected to have an exceptional winning percentage. In 8 seasons under Dave Roberts tutelage, the Dodgers have 5 – 100 win seasons, 2 – 90+ win seasons, but won their only championship in a Covid shortened season. Why is Dave Roberts given accolades for all the Dodgers successes but is exonerated for their failures? Time to replace Dave Roberts.
Phillies Braves continue to just be the HR series.
Well the Braves lost too, so, three 100 win teams eliminated, and only one bye team left standing, yep, the Cheetos.
Interesting articles around the publication circle this morning. Plaschke went off. Stark wrote “Stop Whining About MLB’s Playoff System”, the Phillies and Astros are showing how to do it.
Yeah, the Phillies and Astros are showing how to it. Their “paid to do it” players are actually doing it. The Dodgers? Theirs inexplicably are not able to do it.
I see no logical explanation for the offense being completely shut down by the same players they clobbered during the season. Many of the Dodgers players have been there before, so the bright lights should not bother them. So, what is the answer? The team has a year to figure it out.
I have more to say on some of this but will wait for others to post today.